A flight of 80 hours and almost three minutes. More than three days. That’s the world record the Orion drone set last December, more than doubling the previous record set by a Global Hawk in 2001. It’s got a ridiculously long wing, 135 feet long, more than the height of a 12 story building. That and two turbo-diesel… »7/17/15 10:45am 7/17/15 10:45am

This is CICADA. Half science project and half special access program of the highest classification, CICADA represents a new class of “swarm” drones and unmanned capabilities that are unlike anything we’ve seen in war before. »7/14/15 1:55pm 7/14/15 1:55pm

They’re robots. They fly. They’re watching you. And they’re increasingly found everywhere: Yup, they’re drones. You may think you know exactly what they are and what they do. You don’t. »6/11/15 6:15pm 6/11/15 6:15pm

Space missions get all the hype, but NASA Aeronautics is doing some pretty rad stuff, too. Their ten engine, unmanned electric plane, for instance, has just successfully transitioned from hover mode to wing-borne flight and back again in mid-air. »5/03/15 12:09pm 5/03/15 12:09pm

Many drone businesses—like aerial pizza delivery!—don’t make sense when FAA rules require that humans have a clear line of sight to an aircraft. But the FAA’s drone boss just told us that naked eyes won’t always be a requirement. »5/01/15 5:59pm 5/01/15 5:59pm

Today Iranian military forces tested various unmanned aircraft that some are calling "suicide drones." Because "suicide drone" sounded more intimidating than "model airplane that we could fly into things nearby." »12/27/14 2:00pm 12/27/14 2:00pm

The Phantom Menace has approximately one good scene: the bit where people race through canyons at high speed while people shoot at them. Although reality might not quite be up to jet engines and high-powered rifles quite yet, a group of quadrotor hobbyists have managed to replicate the first-person thrill of racing a… »10/10/14 3:00am 10/10/14 3:00am

Finding forest fires when they're big is relatively easy — you can see them from space. Or, y'know, just follow the burning smell. But if firefighters can identify a burn when it's just started, it's obviously far easier to nip in the bud. Sounds like a job for our old friend Mr Drone. »10/10/14 1:28am 10/10/14 1:28am

The FAA's rules about commercial drones have so far been ham-fisted: ban, except in special cases. But what would a world where we live, play, and work next to drones look like? What would city zoning for drones look like? »8/22/14 5:45pm 8/22/14 5:45pm

The Ryan Firebee is widely considered the first true UAV developed by the US military, however, it was far from their first attempt. Take Operation Aphrodite, which loaded B-17s with high explosives and remotely crashed them into enemy targets, for instance. This early UAV program wasn't just an abject failure, it may… »8/15/14 11:40am 8/15/14 11:40am

This weekend, Ukraine's band of pro-Russian militants bagged themselves a big old bird when they knocked this Soviet-era reconnaissance UAV out of the skies over Shahtersk. »8/04/14 12:11pm 8/04/14 12:11pm

Even though it's still officially a prototype transport system, the K-max unmanned delivery helicopter from Lockheed Martin and Kamen has become a workhorse for US Marine Corps But despite its strong showing throughout the War in Afghanistan, the future of this pilotless chopper remains uncertain. »7/28/14 12:00pm 7/28/14 12:00pm

While the world is tied up in the mystery of what happened to Malaysian Air Flight 370, testers at Edwards AFB in south central California and at Naval Air Station Patuxent River in Maryland are hard at work developing the ultimate tool for solving such a mystery, the Northrop Grumman built MQ-4C Triton. »3/18/14 5:18pm 3/18/14 5:18pm